Timeline Stories

^{Used with permission of the Hancock County Historical Society}

The Society of the Divine Word in Greenville, Mississippi, with the blessing of Pope Benedict XV, opens St Augustine’s Seminary, the first seminary for blacks. Some American bishops are still not convinced of the merit of a Black priesthood.

^{Used with permission of the Franciscan Handmaids of the Most Pure Heart of Mary}

The Georgia state legislature introduces a bill prohibiting whites from teaching Black students. Although the bill eventually fails, a community of Black sisters is formed to teach. In 1922 the sisters relocate to New York where they start a soup kitchen and begin educating local children. In 1929 they affiliate with the Franciscan Third Order, becoming the Franciscan Handmaids of the Most Pure Heart of Mary. Still active in Harlem, their ministries have spread elsewhere in the United States.

^{Unknown photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.}

Led by Thomas Wyatt Turner, the Committee for the Advancement of Colored Catholics forms during World War I to care for Black Catholic servicemen neglected by both the Knights of Columbus and the black YMCA. After the war, the group broadens its focus. Its advocacy gives birth to a new national forum for Black Catholics. The U.S. bishops, despite requests from Rome to act on behalf of Blacks during the race riots and lynchings of 1919, avoid the topic at their first annual meeting. In response, the committee publicly urges the bishops to denounce discrimination and consult with Black Catholics, saying “at present we are neither a part of the colored world (Protestant), nor are we treated as full-fledged Catholics.”

^{From the Knights of Peter Claver Archives, used with permission of the KofPC}

The Knights of Peter Claver, a lay organization for Black Catholics, is established as a parallel to the Knights of Columbus. It soon develops chapters for women and young people. Today it is the largest African American lay Catholic organization in the United States.

^{Photo from the NBCC Archives}

Daniel Rudd, a journalist from Ohio and founder of the American Catholic Tribune, becomes a leader of Black laity. Fiercely proud of the Catholic Church, Rudd claims the Church is the one place of hope for Black people. Rudd recruits delegates for the first Black Catholic Congress, the first Black Catholic lay congress in U.S. history. In January 1889, almost 100 Black Catholic men meet with President Grover Cleveland on the last day of the congress.